


Camping Edition

by purecamp



Series: Mean Queens: The Series [2]
Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: F/F, Mean Girls References, Mean Queens, Mean girls Au, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:22:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24220522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purecamp/pseuds/purecamp
Summary: The girls escape for a camping holiday, and it's as chaotic, disgusting, wholesome and contradictory as it sounds. Mean Queens spinoff
Relationships: Courtney Act/Willam Belli, Sharon Needles/Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, Trixie Mattel/Katya Zamolodchikova, Violet Chachki/Pearl Liaison
Series: Mean Queens: The Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/915267
Kudos: 3





	Camping Edition

Prom was over. All of their exams were over. Before any of the girls knew it, they were in the heavy black gowns, ready to graduate and move on from high school once and for all. It seemed like they spent mere minutes conversing with teachers and excitedly discussing the future before there was a suggestion for all of them to do something over their now-prolonged summer, and school disappeared completely. Now, all that lay ahead was a summer full of fun followed by a vast world of the unknown, something that all of them were both nervous and eager to experience.

Katya had said it first. No one could really make up their minds as to what they should all do together. Willam wanted to fly out to somewhere expensive, and have a full luxurious trip spent in the sunshine, only to be shot down by Sharon who pointedly told her that not everybody had so much money. Courtney wanted to go somewhere filled with nature, where there would be animal protection and national parks, before Alaska murmured about hay fever and bugs. Violet wanted to go somewhere that she could learn about fashion and culture - Milan was on her mind, but absolutely no one was on board with that. So in the end, it was actually Katya who made the suggestion they ended up going with.

Camping.

She reasoned that it suited everyone’s needs. Clean rivers, crystal-clear bodies of water - that suited Willam’s need for luxury. Endless amounts of nature, green plants and trees and grass - satisfying Courtney. Bug spray and hay fever tablets was enough to placate Alaska as long as she knew she’d be with her friends. Violet was swayed with the notion of balancing fashion that could also be practical, and both Sharon and Katya herself didn’t give a shit about where they went. As always, where Katya went, Trixie went too. Camping seemed to be the solution.

Everyone envisioned their camp to run smoothly. Tents set up nicely, a fire in the middle, a gazebo over the top, meals spent laughing and having fun as time whittled away without their notice. Naturally, things never turned out the way they expected them to.

“Jesus fucking Christ, you’ve got it upside-down. How have you got it upside down? How… it’s not that hard, Katya.”

Violet sounded beyond exasperated as she took the tarp from Katya’s hands and flipped it, unfolding the areas she’d managed to fold together and sighing.

“SHARON? WHERE’S THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS ONE?” She called out.

“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!” Came the helpful response. “GO CHECK INSIDE WILLAM’S ASSHOLE. I’M A LITTLE BUSY TRYING TO BUILD HER FUCKING GAZEBO!”

Violet dithered before throwing the fabric down. “Katya, your tent can wait. Go, um… lay out those tent poles for me. Can you start connecting the ones for the frame together? I’d like to have at least one tent assembled before it gets dark.”

Katya was instantly obedient, unaware of how generally unhelpful she was. Then again, at least she was trying; Willam had set out her deck chair towards the sun and coerced Alaska and Pearl into joining her, and Courtney had wandered off with Trixie to find the toilets at least half an hour ago. That just left Katya, Violet and Sharon putting the tents together, each one of them sweating and confused.

“Alaska, babe - fuck, that hurt - can I borrow you? I’m not fucking tall enough to get these two poles together.” Sharon moved away from the gazebo she’d been trying to put together to address Alaska, who reluctantly stood up to help. She clipped the poles together with ease.

She stared around the state of their current camp - randomly scattered poles, empty tent bags, assorted luggage and the odd pair of sunglasses.

“Am I done?”

Sharon sighed deeply. “Nope. Can you grab that cover - no not the green one, not the stripy on - yes, the blue one. That’s the gazebo one. I need your long arms again to get it over the top, and then we can start on our tent.”

As she reached up to fasten the top of their shelter, Alaska scrunched up her nose. “Do we really have to do the tent right now?”

“Unless you plan on sleeping with the ants, pumpkin, I’d say that’s a hard yes.” Sharon answered plaintively.

That snapped her into action. She turned out to be pretty useful under Sharon’s eye, directing her around and using her height to ensure all of the taller parts were connected properly. Unfortunately, the same kind of success wasn’t being mirrored with Violet and Katya.

“Katya! For fuck’s sa- put that down, don’t fuck it up again, please. Katya, have you ever seen a tent?” She asked, almost desperately.

Katya shrugged. “I’ve seen photos. It’s too cold to camp in Russia.”

“Fuck me.” Violet muttered under her breath. “Pearl! Willam! It’s all hands on deck, no protests! Get your asses over here!”

Willam looked lazily over in Violet’s direction, completely unbothered by the frazzled look on her usually calm face, and just held up a hand.

“Can’t, my nails are drying,” she said, before turning her face back to the sun and letting her eyes fall shut.

Violet looked at her in complete disbelief, her jaw nearly falling to the floor at Willam’s complete disregard for their campsite.

“Willam, you get acrylics done every month. You are not waiting for your nails to dry.”

Willam just shrugged, and Violet had to pause for a moment and count to ten, to stop herself from screaming in the manner she really wanted to.

Luckily, Pearl had heaved herself out of her deckchair and was sauntering lazily over, and not far in the distance were the familiar emerging shapes of Courtney and Trixie.

“Court, Trix, if you so much as think about sitting down, I’m going to throw you both in the fire,” Violet threatened as they got closer.

Trixie was about to laugh until the serious look on Violet’s face shut her right up, and she just nodded, following Courtney over to the disaster scene.

“Tents going well then?” Trixie said pleasantly, well aware she was taking her life into her own hands with Violet in the mood that she was. Violet just gritted her teeth and pointed to the nearby forest.

“Take your girlfriend and go and collect wood for the fire later, before I murder her,” Violet instructed Trixie, keeping her voice light. She appreciated the fact that Katya was willing to help when the others weren’t, but Katya’s help was always more of a hindrance, the Russian seemingly unable to take even basic instruction.

Saluting Violet, Trixie grabbed Katya by the hand and led the protesting girl away, placating Katya by telling her just how important it was to get the right kind of firewood.

As their voices faded away, Violet let out a long breath and surveyed her remaining troops, otherwise known as Courtney and Pearl, who were stood side by side and looking slightly terrified. Terrified was good, as far as Violet was concerned at that moment in time. Terrified would mean that they listened to her, and did what she told them to do.

“Right, let’s get this done,” she clapped her hands, and began instructing Courtney and Pearl.

Proceedings went a lot smoother from there. Sharon and Alaska, once they’d gotten one tent done and knew what they were doing, made a surprisingly good team, given Sharon’s lack of height and Alaska’s lack of coordination. Courtney, Pearl, and Violet also worked well together. Perhaps not as smoothly as Sharon and Alaska did, but one withering glare from Violet soon sorted out any mishaps in their team, and within the next hour all the tents were up, the gazebo was in place, and Sharon slotted in the last stone for the firepit.

“Good work team,” came a slow voice from beside them, and all the girls looked over to see Willam had finally roused herself from her deck chair, and had come over to survey their work.

“You’re lucky to still be breathing,” was the only response Violet gave, but her tone was more jovial, and she had a smile on her face now that the hard work was over, and all that was left was to unroll the sleeping mats.

Sleeping mats that Alaska was now surveying with distaste.

“Sharon,” she started, Sharon automatically moving to her side to see what she wanted. “What’s that?”

Sharon bit her lip, knowing she had to move carefully if they didn’t want to experience an Alaska tantrum. And that was definitely, definitely the last thing they wanted.

“It’s - it’s a comfy little mat that we put in the tent to make it more comfortable,” she said, wrapping an arm around Alaska’s waist to try and pull her away. But Alaska wasn’t having it.

“It doesn’t look very comfy.”

“It’s - look, babe, we’ll put it in the tent and if you really don’t like it,” Sharon cast around for something they could do, looking helplessly over at the rest of their group.

“Once Sharon has railed you into next Tuesday, you won’t care much about whether or not it’s comfy,” Willam offered up helpfully, smirking and high fiving Courtney who was stood next to her.

Violet just groaned, grabbing a sleeping mat with one hand and Pearl with the other, before pulling both into the tent she’d set up for herself.

“I’m not coming out until you’ve all learnt how to behave,” she called over her shoulder, before zipping the canvas door up and shutting them all out.

Sharon snorted.

“See you in the afterlife.”

*******************

For several hours after the tent fiasco, all the girls entertained themselves in various different ways, making the most of their surroundings and the fact that they had absolutely nothing to do for several long, lazy weeks.

Willam resumed tanning in her deckchair, turning it every so often so that she was always lined up with the sun, occasionally opening one eye to admire whatever bug, plant, or piece of bark Courtney had discovered in her roam around the area and brought back to show Willam. Violet and Pearl had emerged from their tent after a while, decorated it, and then proceeded to pull out various fashion magazines and sketchbooks and had situated themselves on the ground to work. Alaska had stacked several sleeping mats and bags on top of each other, pulled on her bikini, and was taking a long nap in the late summer sun. Sharon was sat beside her, book in one hand and beer in the other, occasionally looking over at Alaska to make sure she was still breathing.

Trixie had, in her opinion, fared the worst. Katya was incapable of standing or sitting still, or focusing on one task for longer than three seconds. They’d gone from chatting in their tent, to sunning themselves next to the lake, to annoying Sharon for a while, to seeing what wildlife Courtney had found, to - the list of activities was endless. And Trixie usually had endless patience, but just then, when all she wanted to do was lie in the sun and let her brain calcify a little bit, Katya would not let her. Trixie wasn’t entirely sure where she got her energy from, but it didn’t seem to ever dip.

Luckily, just as Trixie was approaching the end of her tether, Katya stood in the middle of the campsite and clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“Ladies, I cannot help but feel we are wasting our time here, and the magnificence of our surroundings,” she announced, ignoring the snort from Sharon’s direction, and gesturing to the forests, mountain, and lake that surrounded them. “I propose a hike.”

A hike was the last thing Trixie wanted to do, but at least it would mean that there was someone else to occupy Katya’s attention, and she would get a small break.

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Trixie said, crossing her fingers in the hopes that everyone else would agree.

Violet seemed to catch on to Trixie’s desperation, a skill she must’ve gleaned from spending so much time around Katya. Despite not being able to think of a worse activity, she stirred Pearl from her magazine and nudged her in Trixie’s direction.

“Me too, we’re down for that. Courtney?”

Courtney was already up on her feet, thrilled at the prospect of getting to explore even more. Her eyes were practically shining with excitement, which in turn caused Willam to reluctantly agree.

Sharon looked over helplessly at the still snoozing Alaska, before looking back at Katya.

“I think we’ll have to sit this one out,” she said, poking Alaska gently. “She’s not going to rouse easily, and I don’t dare wake her up, we’ll only have to deal with constant tired tantrums. I’ll stay here with her, there’s always time to go for another hike.”

Katya nodded, not wanting to push Sharon any further. They’d all had to deal with a woken up Alaska, and none of them wanted to do it again, especially not on holiday.

“Boots on people!” Katya announced happily, waggling her already booted foot in the air. “You never know what you might see!”

Half an hour of grumbling and trying to find various items of clothing later and the girls were all kitted out for their hike. Alaska hadn’t moved at all, and Sharon couldn’t stop laughing as she waved her friends off. If she was honest, she didn’t really want to trudge through nature anyway, she could appreciate it just as much from her perch beside her girlfriend, but she would be lying if she said the now empty campsite wasn’t a little eerie now it was just her awake.

But she was Sharon Needles, and Sharon Needles did not spook easily. Everyone knew that. And so, ignoring the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach, Sharon settled in to continue reading her book until either the girls came back, or Alaska woke up.

The latter occurred first. Sharon had just finished her beer and was considering cracking open another one, just starting to get into her book when Alaska stirred gently beside her. She breathed in deeply, stretching her arms to relieve any cramps, and fixed her sleepy eyes on Sharon.

“Mmm, where is everyone?” She managed, blearily noticing the lack of people around their campsite.

Sharon smiled. “Went hiking about an hour and a half ago, I offered to stay here and look after the sleeping beauty.”

A rosy blush made its way across Alaska’s cheeks. Decisively, she shuffled her chair closer to Sharon until she could nuzzle her head into Sharon’s neck.

“I love you, thank you. Am I covered in bug bites?”

Sharon shook her head. “I topped up your bug spray not long ago, that’s why you smell like flowers and pesticide.”

She threw back her head and cackled as Alaska swatted at her arm, giggling in spite of herself at Sharon’s remark. Leaning in close again, she made an ordeal of sniffing Sharon to determine her girlfriend’s scent to get her own back.

“You just smell like beer and perfume.” She relented, disappointed. “No cigarettes though, that’s new. Finally taking care of your lungs?”

Sharon grinned. “Sweetpea, you’re awful. I don’t know, it feels wrong to smoke in the woods. I can’t just throw a cigarette on the ground in a place like this, it’s so pretty and undisturbed. Kinda reminds me of the woods in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“The one with the donkey guy!” Alaska cut in excitedly. “I remember learning my lines with you when I played Hermia. That feels so long ago.”

“It was!” Sharon agreed. “We’ve grown a lot since then. You kept telling me off for saying that Lysander was definitely a bad boy smoker.”

Alaska laughed. “He was a romantic, not a bad boy! So I’m guessing this is a temporary thing, the no-smoking.”

“Completely. I’ve never been so jittery in my life, my hands won’t stop.”

“I think I can help with that.”

Alaska, now fully awake, got out of her chair to straddle over Sharon’s lap, plucking the book from her hands and tossing it aside. Normally Sharon would have protested, but Alaska had already silenced her with a kiss and taken both of Sharon’s hands in hers.

“I think I like your idea.”

Having released Sharon’s hands, they instantly travelled to Alaska’s waist, holding her steady as she moved down to press bruising kisses along her jawline and neck. The fact that they were outside, completely unshielded from anyone should they walk past, was exhilarating.

“Tent,” Alaska panted, out of breath. “Let’s see how good those sleeping mats are.”

Sharon managed a laugh, despite the heat pooling near the bottom of her stomach. “I’m such a bad influence on you.”

Stumbling to get in as quickly as possible, Alaska fumbled with the zip and yanked it upwards, ducking her head to get inside and tugging Sharon in with her. She barely allowed the few seconds it took for Sharon to close the tent again before she was pushing her onto the air mattress, the groundsheet sliding as she did so. Using as much force as she could muster, Alaska had Sharon pinned down and resumed kissing her neck.

“Baby, let me-” Sharon began, trying to get on top.

Alaska shook her head, pinning her down further. “Not today.”

****************************************

Violet found herself thankful for four things at the end of the almost two hour hike.

One, Courtney. She was excellent at not only keeping Willam in line, but distracting Katya when she became too much, talking to her about plants and insects and grabbing her attention the way one would with a toddler. As it turned out, it looked like Courtney would be incredibly useful on their trip.

Two, Pearl. Without her, Violet knew her sanity would have failed her, and she’d be as loony as the rest of the group she was walking with. How they could manage to be so - well - crazy, whilst on a hike in the middle of nowhere, Violet would never know. But sweet, quiet Pearl was unknowingly saving the day.

Three, Sharon. Although she never expected herself to be so thankful for Sharon, her absence only highlighted the depressing fact that she, unfortunately, was one of the more sane and controlled people of the bunch. Irresponsible as she could be, she was better than someone like Katya who wanted to touch the ‘pretty’ and also ‘potentially poisonous’ plants. She was sorely missed.

Four, phone signal. Had it not been for the sight of her mom’s face on a crackly Facetime, she may not have survived. Halfway through the hike they’d found themselves on a hill, with a gorgeous view of rivers snaking their way through the deep green valley - and the even more beautiful indication that there was a tiny bit of phone signal at the very top. Violet had insisted everyone climbed up it, just so she could say hello and stop Alyssa from fretting.

“I can’t believe we all just left high school, and you guys still act like kindergarteners.” She commented dryly, looking back at Katya and Willam who were sniggering at a phallic plant. “I mean, really. That would give you a rash, not pleasure.”

“Why not both?” Willam fired back instantly. “Sometimes the biggest pleasures in life give us rashes. It’s curable.”

Courtney smacked her arm. “Wills! I’ve never given you a rash!”

Before the bickering could continue any further, Trixie’s voice cut in. “The camp!”

There had been a slight deliberation over whether they’d gotten lost, as it turned out that hiking when you barely knew the area, without a map or phone signal, wasn’t the best idea. However, Trixie had caught sight of their tents, arranged in a circle, just a few feet away.

“Well, thank fuck for that.” Willam exclaimed. “My feet haven’t ached like this in months. That was worse than trying to break in a pair of new Louboutins.”

Approaching the campsite, it very quickly became apparent that Sharon and Alaska were no longer where the group had left them. Courtney frowned, momentarily confused.

“Maybe they went to go nap in the tent? It is getting dark.” She suggested, pointing unnecessarily at the slowly sinking sun. Sure enough, the sky was beginning to turn orange in the early evening preparation for sunset, but it still didn’t really seem plausible.

“Sharon’s book is on the floor.” Pearl observed, bending down to pick it up. “The page is all crumpled.”

Violet frowned. “Okay, this is weird. We can’t hear them laughing and Sharon never treats books like that.”

“Have they been kidnapped?!” Katya burst out. “Or, or, eaten by a bear! They could’ve been dragged away by some horrible savage bear thing, or murdered by a creepy hunter guy, or maybe aliens took them?! Maybe -”

Trixie silenced her with a hand. A thoughtful expression crossed her face as she gazed blankly upwards, clearly listening to something.

“Can you hear that rustling? It sounds like a groundsheet.”

Everyone fell silent, listening. It was only faint - some of them could hear it, some still were too far away. But as Trixie had said, it was definitely there.

The silence remained, as everyone slowly crept a little closer to try and confirm the noise. They were almost about to give up when a loud, breathy moan suddenly broke out of the quiet, followed by a sharp intake of breath and another moan.

Courtney’s jaw dropped. “Was that… SHARON?!” She whispered theatrically.

Willam chuckled, purposely lowering the volume of her voice. “I believe it was, my dearest little Aussie immigrant. It sounds a little something like the ol’ bump and grind.”

Courtney blinked.

“Fucking, Courtney. They’re railing each other into the next century. It sounds a little like Alaska is three fingers de-”

“Shut up!” Courtney hissed. “I get it, I get it.”

Violet let out a long suffering sigh. She couldn’t say that she was surprised that Sharon and Alaska had taken advantage of the quiet, she’d lived with them both for long enough. But disappointed? Definitely. Sharon’s timekeeping was usually better than this.

“I don’t mean to interrupt you,” Violet called, knowing she had to step up and take the lead, deliberately keeping her tone one of boredom. “But if Alaska could please remove her fingers from where they currently are, and if you could both put your clothes on, that would be great. Someone needs to cook dinner.”

Silence.

The girls who had been hiking held their breath, waiting for a response.

“Uh-” Sharon’s voice was breathy and broken. “If you could all fuck off for just-”

“Not a chance. If you had your head screwed on straight, or rather, you were doing the screwing, you would have known to have been done by now.”

Another moment of silence, before the girls heard frantic whispering from inside the tent.

“We should really get out there.”

This was Alaska. Violet grinned triumphantly as she heard the embarrassment coating Alaska’s voice, and she could almost see the beetroot colour that Alaska’s cheeks would have turned.

Muffled laughter.

That was definitely Sharon.Violet was about to pipe up and tell them to get a move on when Sharon spoke.

“Lask, the best bit is that we’re talking and they don’t even know that your fingers are-”

“Sharon, I don’t mean to alarm you, but we can hear every word,” Violet called, ignoring the sniggers coming from behind her. There was silence in the tent again.

“It’s cold outside! I’m just - keeping Alaska’s fingers warm, so she doesn’t get frostbite,” Sharon called in an attempt to cover her tracks, but Violet wasn’t having any of it.

“Shaz, it’s summer. She’s in as much danger of getting frostbite as I am of becoming the pope. I’m giving you both thirty seconds to get out here, or I’m coming in.”

“Vi, I didn’t know you were into threeso-” Sharon’s voice was cut off as she yelped in pain, and a minute later a sheepish Alaska and a smug Sharon emerged from the tent, clothed in the loosest sense of the word.

Both were wearing jeans and jumpers, but Sharon’s fly was still undone, and Alaska’s jumper was on backwards and inside out. Violet just sighed, and pointed towards the lake.

“Wash your hands before I throw you in.”

*******************************************

Dark had fully set in by the time the girls had finished dinner, washed up, and packed away the crockery into the hamper Alyssa had packed for them. Everyone was clad in warm jumpers and sweatpants, and everyone but Katya was wearing sneakers. Katya had insisted on bringing her bunny slippers, because they ‘wanted to see the nature’, and no one was about to start arguing with her. They had to pick their battles with Katya.

“This is a good fire,” Courtney said lazily from where she was sat on the floor, head resting on Willam’s shoulder, blanket over their shoulders, their hands intertwined.

“Warm, like fires should be,” Willam replied with a teasing note to her voice, before she dropped a kiss to the top of Courtney’s head, thinking that no one could see the sappy look on her face as she thought about just how much she loved the Australian.

Katya had finally expended all her energy, and was lying down on the floor, her head cradled on Trixie’s lap as she stared into the fire, occasionally piping up with the different creatures she could see inside the flames. No one was paying much attention to her but Trixie, who was running her hands slowly through Katya’s long blonde locks, and indulging her fantasies as she basked in the comfort of the fire and the friendship.

“You know, they have this night in England where they light bonfires,” Alaska said as she crossed the ground and settled herself on Sharon’s lap, proclaiming that she was cold and needed warming up.

Violet threw a blanket at the pair of them before speaking.

“How you two aren’t married yet I’ll never know,” she laughed. “And Lask, isn’t that just called summer?” She added in slight confusion, wondering where Alaska had gotten this information from.

Alaska shook her head, snuggling down into Sharon and tucking the blanket around her feet.

“No, it’s just one night. I guess they have fires on other nights, but this is a special night for bonfires,” Alaska explained sleepily, turning her face into Sharon’s chest so she could inhale the familiar scent of her girlfriend. She never felt more comfortable or at home than she did on Sharon’s lap.

Sharon smiled, kissing the top of Alaska’s head.

“I believe you pumpkin,” she said quietly, knowing how much Alaska hated it when people didn’t take her at her word. “And - we’ll get married when the time is right.We’ve got college to get through first.”

Everyone groaned at Sharon’s reminder that this summer wouldn’t last forever, that lurking around the corner for all of them was the future. Not all of them were headed to college, but the ones that were could only imagine the workload swiftly approaching them.

“I don’t want to grow up,” Katya said plaintively, Trixie quietly comforting her.

“I’m excited,” Violet said, shifting slightly so she could wind her fingers through Pearl’s. Unlike the others, Pearl and Violet didn’t often display their affection publicly, but everyone knew how deeply they were in love. “I know what I’m going to do, I know I’m going to succeed, and I have Pearl by my side.”

Sharon hid a smile. Of course out of all of them, Violet was completely certain on not only what her future would be, but also that she was going to hit all of her goals. And Sharon believed her. What Violet wanted, Violet got.

“We’ve got about six months to get somewhere with our music before we need to think about getting real jobs,” Willam chimed in, her tone uncharacteristically nervous for the usually confident blonde. She gestured between herself, Courtney, and Alaska. “I know we’re good enough. We just need that one break so we can make money. That’s the important bit.”

“The important bit is making music we’re proud of,” Courtney gently chastised.

Alaska stayed silent. She didn’t have parents and money to fall back on like Courtney and Willam did, but she knew there was nothing she could do but sing and act, and if the singing didn’t work - well, Alaska wasn’t quite sure what she would do. But she had Sharon at her side, and that meant she could get through anything.

“I don’t want to think about the amount of work I’m going to have to do,” Sharon sighed, wanting to move the subject on before Alaska got too maudlin. Katya, Trixie, and Pearl nodded in agreement.

“It’s going to be a lot, but I’m excited to just be able to paint all day and not have to worry about numbers and letters and things,” Katya grinned.

“I wonder where we’ll all be in five years time?” Pearl mused quietly, smiling as Violet squeezed her hand gently. “We should meet up, all of us, at this time every year and find out how far we’ve come, and how much we’ve accomplished.”

There was unanimous agreement at Pearl’s suggestion, everyone chiming in with places they could meet, and things they might have done by this time next year, and for the next ten minutes the dark of the camp site was punctuated by excited chatter. Their faces glowed golden in the light from the fire, and the air hummed with the anticipation in their words, the stars their only witness to the goals and expectations they were setting for themselves. They had their whole lives laid out in front of them, they had their youth, and they were ready to deal with whatever life wanted throw their way, as long as they had each other. That was the most important part.


End file.
